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Tommy Twice: This Is Your Life
After a lifetime of disappointments and trouble. Tommy Thomas - better known to one and all as Tommy Twice - has had enough of living, but fate takes a hand and with a little help from his friends, family and the people of the community where he has lived his whole life. Tommy Twice embarks on a miracle that had to be seen to be believed.
'Tommy Twice: This Is Your Life', is a story about the choices we make, the journeys we take and that miracles sometimes do happen, even with the unlikeliest of people in the most unlikeliest of places.
'Tommy Twice: This Is Your Life', is a story about the choices we make, the journeys we take and that miracles sometimes do happen, even with the unlikeliest of people in the most unlikeliest of places.
384 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2017
1 person is currently reading
1046 people want to read
About the author
Carlos Hughes
3 books44 followersCarlos Hughes can't dance, can't sing, can't play an instrument, can't fix engines - can't do sod all really except write stories which he has done all his life - starting when he was at school where he would write 15 pages in 'creative writing' classes and instead of the teachers enthusing about his genius and productivity - they threatened him with detention if he ever exceeded two pages again.
Been sacked from most jobs for insubordination, destroying of stock, equipment and property or just plain laziness and incompetence - was saved mid-life by TEFL and the booming Asian economies - which he based his first novel 'White Monkey' on. It might become a worldwide hit - it might need time - or - it might just not - he doesn't mind - there is more to come.
Carlos Hughes lives alone in China, a state of affairs that is good for his writing projects.
Been sacked from most jobs for insubordination, destroying of stock, equipment and property or just plain laziness and incompetence - was saved mid-life by TEFL and the booming Asian economies - which he based his first novel 'White Monkey' on. It might become a worldwide hit - it might need time - or - it might just not - he doesn't mind - there is more to come.
Carlos Hughes lives alone in China, a state of affairs that is good for his writing projects.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
October 5, 2023
As a kid, I watched those iconic English Soap Operas, Coronation Street and Eastenders, and have always been fascinated by English regional accents. Here, author Carlos Hughes brings the speech patterns of St Helens, Northern England, alive in all their glory. Irvine Welsh is an influence, but Hughes has his own comic-tragic style. Our antihero is Tommy Twice, a fat layabout in his late twenties going nowhere. On the dole, he lives with his mum and dad, plays Xbox, and fishes with his Grinch-like mates.
Tommy is a smart lad, but life in St Helens is crap. His parents only care about his brother who died in Iraq. The townsfolk are Philistines. When he’s not devouring curries or greasy Chinese, Tommy plans to appear on a game show and win thousands of pounds through his general knowledge A puerile fantasy. Hughes does well in parodying the nihilism of Northern England with its grey skies and small-minded drunkenness. Tommy can never escape this world but after a tragic turn of events, he gives it a shot.
Friend and pro-boxer, Ivan, starts training the obese Tommy. It turns out he has a mean left hook. Boxing becomes the road to success and we follow Tommy through several well-written fight sequences. From town bum to town hero, Tommy’s redemption story is all but complete as his world expands beyond its former confines of buffet restaurants and Xbox gaming sessions. But, in the end, he is too different for St Helens to accept. Hughes uses a social issue often talked about these days to create a twist and intensify his critique of small-town intolerance. It surprised me he took on this issue, but it helped me to understand Tommy’s deep apathy at the beginning of the book. Hughes reveals what lies under the surface for his protagonist without having to beat the reader over the head with it.
The second half of the book happens at a much faster pace than the first. I thought the pacing could’ve been more even. This is a more heartfelt and painful story than Hughes’s debut ‘White Monkey.’ There are laughs but it’s more a Greek tragedy than comedy. It would be a hardhearted person who didn’t cheer Tommy on in his fight against despair. 4.5 stars.
Tommy is a smart lad, but life in St Helens is crap. His parents only care about his brother who died in Iraq. The townsfolk are Philistines. When he’s not devouring curries or greasy Chinese, Tommy plans to appear on a game show and win thousands of pounds through his general knowledge A puerile fantasy. Hughes does well in parodying the nihilism of Northern England with its grey skies and small-minded drunkenness. Tommy can never escape this world but after a tragic turn of events, he gives it a shot.
Friend and pro-boxer, Ivan, starts training the obese Tommy. It turns out he has a mean left hook. Boxing becomes the road to success and we follow Tommy through several well-written fight sequences. From town bum to town hero, Tommy’s redemption story is all but complete as his world expands beyond its former confines of buffet restaurants and Xbox gaming sessions. But, in the end, he is too different for St Helens to accept. Hughes uses a social issue often talked about these days to create a twist and intensify his critique of small-town intolerance. It surprised me he took on this issue, but it helped me to understand Tommy’s deep apathy at the beginning of the book. Hughes reveals what lies under the surface for his protagonist without having to beat the reader over the head with it.
The second half of the book happens at a much faster pace than the first. I thought the pacing could’ve been more even. This is a more heartfelt and painful story than Hughes’s debut ‘White Monkey.’ There are laughs but it’s more a Greek tragedy than comedy. It would be a hardhearted person who didn’t cheer Tommy on in his fight against despair. 4.5 stars.
February 27, 2017
"Tommy Twice: This is Your Life" is the second offering from "White Monkey" author Carlos Hughes and, whilst it still contains plenty of Hughes' now trademark humour and adept characterisation it is a markedly different book. In "White Monkey" Hughes offered us Darren Finnegan a put-upon, hapless Everyman who this reader found it impossible not to like and root for throughout the laugh-out-loud adventure, however, the indolent and feckless - yet amusingly named Thomas Thomas - is a character who it is incredibly difficult to warm to.
Thomas Thomas - called for obvious reasons Tommy Twice by all who know him - is lazy, thoughtless and lacking in any direction whatsoever. He has never done a day's work in his life and his daily routine revolves around eating, sleeping, playing video games and obsessing over the TV quiz show "Deal or no Deal". His attitude towards life infuriates his long-suffering parents, his few friends and this reader, although Hughes subtly drives the narrative so that it becomes obvious that Tommy Twice's situation is becoming increasingly untenable.
It is only at his lowest ebb that Tommy Twice becomes receptive to the idea of change and, with the help of his friend Ivan Kalisnaukas - a British boxing champion - embarks upon an unlikely transformation into an amateur super-heavyweight boxer. This could easily be a ridiculous and frankly unbelievable turn of events, but Tommy's change from a morbidly obese, junk food munching layabout into a health-conscious athlete is well-written and really brings the reader along for the ride. From a position of loathing the character and his actions I really did find myself caught-up in his sporting endeavours and cheering his every success.
Sports based books can sometimes be disappointing because the world we are presented with does not feel convincing however, given his knowledge of the subject it is clear that the author is a boxing fan and, consequently, he handles the fight scenes with aplomb; action sequences can sometimes be hard to write but the reader has a ringside seat for each bout and really feels in the thick of the action.
There are twists aplenty in this dramatic comedy tale which this reader has tried desperately not to reveal, and the book constitutes another rewarding read from this author. I for one look forward to Carlos Hughes creating a significant body of work full of humour, pathos, entertaining pop-culture references and brilliant characterisation.
Thomas Thomas - called for obvious reasons Tommy Twice by all who know him - is lazy, thoughtless and lacking in any direction whatsoever. He has never done a day's work in his life and his daily routine revolves around eating, sleeping, playing video games and obsessing over the TV quiz show "Deal or no Deal". His attitude towards life infuriates his long-suffering parents, his few friends and this reader, although Hughes subtly drives the narrative so that it becomes obvious that Tommy Twice's situation is becoming increasingly untenable.
It is only at his lowest ebb that Tommy Twice becomes receptive to the idea of change and, with the help of his friend Ivan Kalisnaukas - a British boxing champion - embarks upon an unlikely transformation into an amateur super-heavyweight boxer. This could easily be a ridiculous and frankly unbelievable turn of events, but Tommy's change from a morbidly obese, junk food munching layabout into a health-conscious athlete is well-written and really brings the reader along for the ride. From a position of loathing the character and his actions I really did find myself caught-up in his sporting endeavours and cheering his every success.
Sports based books can sometimes be disappointing because the world we are presented with does not feel convincing however, given his knowledge of the subject it is clear that the author is a boxing fan and, consequently, he handles the fight scenes with aplomb; action sequences can sometimes be hard to write but the reader has a ringside seat for each bout and really feels in the thick of the action.
There are twists aplenty in this dramatic comedy tale which this reader has tried desperately not to reveal, and the book constitutes another rewarding read from this author. I for one look forward to Carlos Hughes creating a significant body of work full of humour, pathos, entertaining pop-culture references and brilliant characterisation.
August 27, 2017
I dare you to read this and not laugh, Tommy starts out as a hapless waster who you just want to slap and turns into the loveable hero.
January 30, 2024
Funny in a tragic way. This is a look at life as it is for many young people today. see more of this review at https://simplyhonestreviews.webador.c...
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews